Old man Burris still has something to prove
41-year-old pivot is back in charge as the Redblacks aim for second straight Grey Cup appearance
One thing the Ottawa Redblacks have on their side heading into Sunday’s showdown with the Edmonton Eskimos is that their starting quarterback seems to believe he still has something to prove, even after 18 seasons in the Canadian Football League.
If he does, it would go a long way toward the Redblacks winning the East Division final at TD Place stadium and the right to play for the Grey Cup for the second year in a row.
“I just know people were out there and ready to write me off,” Redblacks quarterback Henry Burris said Saturday.
“Whenever people are starting to write you off, regardless of who they are, and they start asking you to sit down and they’re going to put in another guy ... In my mind, this is still my team. Regardless of who you put in there — you could put Superman in there — this is still my team.”
Following a 2015 season in which he led the CFL in passing, received the league’s most outstanding player award for the second time and led the Redblacks to an unsuccessful Grey Cup game appearance against the Eskimos, Burris damaged tendons in the pinky finger of his passing hand when he rapped it off the helmet of an Edmonton defensive lineman in June.
After knee and ankle injuries sidelined replacement Trevor Harris, an off-season free agent signee already designated as his successor for 2017, Burris returned prematurely from the injured list in midsummer. However, he struggled badly in three contests, so Harris was reinstalled as the starter and remained there until Burris came off the bench and led a fourth-quarter comeback in an Oct. 7 home game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
He then passed for more than 1,100 yards in three starts before sitting out the Nov. 4 finale against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, but Burris said Saturday he felt better physically than he ever has going into a playoff game.
“I knew I just needed to get healthy and get my hand so I could actually feel the ball coming off my pinky, which I couldn’t when I was playing then at 80 per cent, but I wanted to give my team all I could to help us win,” he said. “We’re competitors. That’s what we’re paid to do. When you have a chance to be out on that field, do you think any guy in that locker-room would say no, even if he’s playing on one leg? No.”
Burris also dismissed the idea there might be additional pressure on him beyond that applied by Eskimos pass rushers. Again referring to those he believed were his critics, he said he wasn’t supposed to be slinging the ball all over the field at age 41.
“I’m out there playing and I’m not supposed to be there, so why should I even care?” Burris said. “Let’s get out there and play and execute. Let’s enjoy this moment.”
Eskimos head coach Jason Maas spent 2015 as the Redblacks’ offensive co-ordinator, colouring his perspective on the veteran who ranks third behind Anthony Calvillo and Damon Allen in most CFL career passing statistics.
“He’ll get himself physically and mentally ready for this game,” Maas said during his media conference. “He’s tough to bring down in the pocket, he’ll throw it anywhere on the field. He has that unique ability, that savvy, that veteran presence in the pocket.
“You hope to contain him and you hope to force him into some bad situations.”
Eskimos starting quarterback Mike Reilly, the league’s leading passer this past season with 5,554 yards, has something to prove himself on Sunday: that the left shoulder injury he suffered in last week’s East semifinal win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats won’t limit him against the Redblacks.
““We’re trying to win the Grey Cup,” said Reilly. “There are so many guys who weren’t here last year, that weren’t part of that Grey Cup championship. The guys who were here know what that felt like and they want to have it again. The guys who weren’t, they want to be part of that success.”